A blank page is freeing, but sometimes you would rather start with structure already in place. Templates give you a ready-made document as a starting point, filled with believable example content, so you can begin from something shaped roughly like what you need and adapt it, instead of building every page from nothing.
Starting from a Template
When you create a new document, it is made there and then, saved where new documents go (see Default Folders), and its empty tab opens on Start Making Pages: its Recommended templates first, then every template in groups beside them (Slides, Infographics, Articles, Posters and Social and Design), with a search. Click a template and the tab fills with its pages; from there it is an ordinary document, to move, edit, add to and delete from as on any tab.
Every new tab, and every tab you empty, offers the same start. Close it with its × to begin from a blank page; while the tab is still empty, Show Templates in the strip under the palette brings it back.
The search at the top of the start, Find a template, finds a template by its name, its description, its category, or the everyday words people use for it: try "powerpoint", "cv", "flyer", "birthday" or "storyboard". Every word you type has to match, and pressing the down arrow in the search box takes you to the first card it found.
What's in the Catalogue
The templates are grouped by the job you are doing, in two categories:
| Category | Templates |
|---|---|
| Design | Storyboard, Floor Plan |
| Presentations | Slide Deck, Launch Keynote, Quarterly Review, Team Welcome, Workshop Kickoff, Project Brief, Working Backwards, How It Works, Data Story, Year in Review, Versus, Social Carousel, Event Poster, Résumé, Recipe Card, Group Card |
Launch Keynote, Quarterly Review, Team Welcome and Workshop Kickoff are decks built from the slide layouts, each opening and closing on an animated background. Working Backwards is Amazon's PR/FAQ, written as an article.
The blanks sit apart from the categories, since starting from nothing is not a kind of page. Blank Illustration is one empty page that asks what it is for; it is what closing the start with its × gives you. The others start on one empty page of a kind you already know: Blank Slide Deck, Blank Article and Blank Infographic. Find them first in their groups on Start Making Pages, search for them, or pick them from Blank Slate on the livedocuments home page. Blank Tab, an empty tab with one page that asks what it is for, is made by name, from an AI agent or a link, rather than offered on the start.
Each one arrives as real elements rather than a picture: a slide's headings are text you retype, a storyboard's shots are frames you can rearrange. Nothing in a template is locked or special.
Changing the Theme
A new document starts on the Default theme, and a template picked on a start takes the tab's current theme. Once you are on the canvas, click the Theme & canvas button in the bottom-right corner to open the Tab Style dialog and try a different theme: it recolours the whole template at once.
Making It Your Own
A template is just a head start, not a constraint. Everything in it is fully editable: rename and recolour the elements, restyle the whole thing with a different theme, or strip out the parts you do not need. Because the document works the same as any other, you can also add tabs, invite others, and share it once you have shaped it into what you want.
Templates pair naturally with themes: pick a layout that fits your content, then try a few themes from the Tab Style dialog to find the look you want. Double-click a theme to apply it and close the dialog in one go.
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